Wednesday Worktable - Wednesday 25th November - Rainbow Houses and Felty Books

Good Morning All!  A contribution to Julia's WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday), at her Julia-Dunnit Blog.  I try to join in as often as I can and I really enjoy seeing what everyone else is up to - especially at this time of year, when desks start to look quite exciting!

So, first of all... I Finished the Bunting:

Here are the little houses, on two strings.  Not quite on my desk, but several of you did ask to see the finished buntings.  I won't bore you with more photos, but if you really want to see more, there is a little photo album on my Facebook page, which you are more than welcome to view - see it here!  

And on my desk?

This green felt journal was finished over the weekend.  It's made of lovely soft wool felt, lined with a holly-sprinkled cotton fabric, with golden highlights.  I embroidered the cover with red, green and gold, to make it extra pretty, then bound it with black linen thread and added a fine red satin ribbon tie.

Inside, you can see the fabric lining.  The pages are made with hand made Indian cotton-rag paper. The edges have their natural deckle, from the moulds in which each sheet is made.  

It's really nice paper, with a texture from the fine mesh that each sheet lies on as it is made in the frame. The cotton paper pulp is lifted out of the vat with a frame, over which a mesh is stretched.  It is shaken to form a layer - or sheet - and most of the water drained off.  Then it is tipped out to dry in the sunshine! 

Anyway, paper-making lesson over... I also made this, which I finished today:

A soft blue felt journal, with white and gold embroidery.  Decorated with a white felt snowflake.  I added a gold organza ribbon tie, which is nice and shimmery.  It is bound in longstitch, with ivory linen.  

The journal is lined with this fab snowman printed cotton fabric, with golden highlights.  Very Seasonal! 

The book is my favourite cream laid "Character" paper, with nice hand-cut edges.  This is such lovely paper - crisp and really good to write on. 

Thank you for coming to see what I've been doing.  I also have a photo album and some leather journal covers on the go... but I forgot to photograph them!  I'll post about them soon, so feel free to come back later in the week and see what else is going on.

Why not pop back to Julia's Blog and have a look at what else is happening this week?

Leather Notebook Cover and Pencil Case

I posted a few photos last week, of a leather Notebook Cover and Pencil Case set, that I had made.
I thought I'd just post a little more detailed description here, as I'm rather proud of them. 

The Notebook Cover and matching hand-stitched Pencil Case, in golden-buff coloured leather.  The stitching is in red linen thread, hand-sewn with a traditional cobblers' method, for strength and a good appearance.  Both the notebook cover and pencil case are lined with nice red bookcloth, to give a long-lasting, attractive finish. 

The notebooks are held in by elastic straps (these are black, but I have several other colours). 

The notebook cover will hold three notebooks, up to A5 size. 

There's a little page-minder too, to mark where you're currently working. 

It's obviously inspired by the currently popular "Midori" notebook covers.  Lots of people have these just now and, as notebook covers have been something I was "going to do" for ages, I really thought I should have a go.  

The nice thing about making them by hand, is that there is flexibility on size.  This one is A5 size - it measures 21.25 x 17cm / 8.5 x 6.5" approx - so it will hold notebooks of A5 size, but also 7"x 5", 6" x 4", or anything in between.  
However, there is no reason why I can't make a larger or smaller version, make it tall and thin, or shorter and fatter.  I'm only limited by the size of leather I can get!  

And, as I am in charge... I made a matching Pen / Pencil Case, that will hold up to six pens or pencils. 

I made one of these for my son's birthday last year.  He's still using it and likes it very much, so I thought it might be time to put them into my shop too.  

Again, I can make them in different sizes and adjust their shape and style to suit the new owner.  

I'm very pleased with them!  

Wednesday Worktable - Wednesday 11th November 2015 - Little Houses in a Row!

Hello all and welcome to LizzieMade blog on a windy Wednesday!

This is a contribution to Julia Dunnit's WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday) weekly challenge, which I try to join in with whenever I can.

This morning my desk is home to a continuation of last week's project: 

Set One of the little houses for two strings of House Bunting.  Here they are, all cut, coloured and with holes punched, ready to be strung together.  

A few close-up views, in case you want to see.  I used coloured pencils in the end, to draw the roof, windows and doors and all the details for each house. 

I'm waiting for approval from my customer, then I will start the second set - which will have doors on the right hand side.  I have asked if she wants all the "left doors" on one string and the "right doors" on the other, but she hasn't said yet!  Hopefully she will be pleased with these and I'll get on with the next batch later on.  

I hope you enjoyed looking at my project in progress.  Do come back next time - I'll try to put a photo of the finished bunting strings.  

Meanwhile, why not take a trip over to Julia's blog, to see what everyone else is up to today? 

Thanks for visiting!  

Wednesday Worktable - Wednesday 4th November - Midori Style and Bunting!

Hello Deskers!  This is an infrequent contribution to WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday), over at Julia's Stamping Ground. Each Wednesday, Julia invites fellow crafters and bloggers to show a photo or two of their worktables, and explain what they've been doing.

I don't seem to get much time for working in my studio.  It's just been mad, this last few months (actually, make that years!).  Anyway, "stuff" does happen... sometimes.  So, just to prove it, here are a couple of photos to show something I have just finished (but it's an ongoing project!) and also what I'm currently working on:

Just completed and to be added to my online shop as soon as... 

 

A Leather Notebook Cover, with matching Pen Case 

Inspired by the popular Midori notebooks with covers and a pencil-case I made for my son's birthday last year. The nice thing about them is that I can make any size or shape and in any colour of leather that I can get!  

So, those are just completed and ready for better photos and to be offered for sale.  

Currently this is what's on my desk: 

Experiments and planning for a Commission.  

A lady who runs a student housing agency, found this post on my blog, where I showed a little string of mini bunting.  She has asked me to make her two long strings of House Bunting, to hang in her office.  These houses are 6" tall, so they're considerably larger than the mini bunting I made before. We've just agreed on what she wants and I'm about to start making the "real" bunting.  They will each be six feet long when completed.  It's great fun!

Thank you for reading.  I hope you've enjoyed visiting today.  Feel free to browse my blog, but once you're finished, do go back to Julia's Stamping Ground, to see what everyone else is doing today.